Recently, music projects that in former times would have required an array of professional studio equipment can now be completed in a home or project studio, using a personal computer and readily available resources. A personal computer with a fast processor and enough RAM can serve as a workstation for recording, arranging, mixing, and producing complete music projects, which can be played back on the computer, burned on a CD or DVD, or distributed over the Internet.
A user of such a program for producing complete music projects can choose among a lot of alternative window arrangements depending on the workflow he wants to conduct. There are, for example, different window arrangements for editing a selected track or for showing the mixer to manipulate different channels. One commonly known window arrangement is shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a structure of a known window arrangement 1. Such a window for arranging music can show a local menu bar 2 by which a wide range of different functions can be selected and/or started. The window arrangement 1 also features a toolbox 3 by which the user can easily choose different tools, e.g. a pointer, pencil, eraser, scissors and glue tools that allow him to select, draw, delete, cut, merge, copy, paste and cross fade regions. In the center 6 of such a window arrangement 1, a track list is shown together with an area showing audio parts belonging to the listed tracks. The track list can, among others, contain audio tracks, MIDI tracks and tracks for certain instruments emulated by the computer. The user selects a track he wants to work on. The arrange window 1 also features a transport window 5 which can be used to e.g. start and stop playback, turn on “Cycle” (a cycle is a looped portion of the song), set drop in/out points for recording, adjust synchronization settings and adjust several other options. Additional tools and/or Plug-In features can be provided in a separate window 7 shown on the right side of the arrange window 1.
FIG. 1 also shows a channel strip 4 of the selected track. This channel strip 4 is only a single one of the channel strips of the mixer. The mixer consists of multiple channel strips, e.g. one for each track. However, in an arrange window like the one of FIG. 1, it is not possible to show the complete mixer. Therefore, it is common to show only the channel strip of the currently selected track. Changes which are made in the arrange window 1 to the channel strip 4 will be identically made to that channel strip in the mixer. Accordingly, the channel strip 4 in the arrange window 1 allows the user to adjust the sound of the currently selected track without visiting another window, i.e. without visiting the window of the mixer.